‘Like 100 years ago…’: Local Festivities in Weimar and Nazi Germany

Abstract

While previous chapters have concentrated on mass staged events, illustrating the development of festive aesthetics, this chapter shifts the focus to an overview of the staging of local festivities. Discussions on reforming the style and visual impact of festive ceremonies often centred on large-scale events, but we want to examine whether similar debates influenced local celebrations. After all, Rhine spectacles, Thingspiele or the Olympic Games were only tangible for a majority of the population through coverage in the newspapers or on the radio. How much of the proclaimed new festive culture—being visual, inclusive and spectacular—actually reached local celebrations?